Publicans to ban smoking during FF conference

Angry publicans are planning to give politicians a taste of their own medicine by banning smoking at pubs and bars during a party conference next month.

Bar owners will stop Fianna Fáil delegates lighting up on their premises in Killarney, Co Kerry, in protest at the ban due to be enforced in January.

Members of lobby group the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance (IHIA), who have campaigned vigorously against the new law, are asking publicans to enforce a ban during the conference on the weekend of October 11.

There are also plans to send “smoke police” to raid the conference centre to see which delegates are smoking.

The IHIA is planning to implement the ban on Killarney’s College Street.

Michael Power, manager of McSorley’s pub in College Street, said: “We will probably enforce this as a token protest.

“It’s an ideal opportunity to show them the impact of what they are doing. They will see the effect for themselves.

“This ban is going to be extremely difficult to enforce in January. It’s going to have a very serious effect.

“I run a nightclub, and with 1,000 customers on the premises it’s difficult keep them under control, let alone stop them smoking too.”

From January 2004 it will be illegal to smoke in any workplace – including pubs and restaurants.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern recently rejected calls for a compromise and insisted the ban will still go ahead in January.

Health minister Micheál Martin, who devised the new regulations, saw the effects for himself when he visited pubs in New York earlier this month.